


Faces

by Vampiric_Charms



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 15:48:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2473739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampiric_Charms/pseuds/Vampiric_Charms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is not her face as he may have seen hours before, surly and frustrated, or the one of his childhood, closed and concerned.  The face that haunts his dreams now is one with the steeled expression of a person who expected to die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faces

**Author's Note:**

> I have not read much fanfiction for Korra, so I apologize if this has been overdone! It was something that came into my head and wanted to be put to paper. Enjoy!

Sometimes he dreams about her, dreams that leave him waking, tossing and turning fitfully as he tries to find sleep again. Not dreams that fill him with guilt, Pema sleeping soundly beside him, but dreams to fill him with a fear that is long gone. When he closes his eyes after these dreams, all he sees behind his eyelids is her face, staring back at him, until he has to get up out of bed and pace to his window, staring out across the bay to his glistening city. 

It is not her face as he may have seen hours before, surly and frustrated, or the one of his childhood, closed and concerned. The face that haunts his dreams now is one with the steeled expression of a person who expected to die.

Tenzin had never in his life expected Lin to give her own for his. He had never asked it of her even in that desperate time, and he never would have been able to forgive himself if things turned out differently. And yet, he knew he would not have been able to stop her from taking that flying leap away from him – away from his family – to save them all, regardless of any words he may have found.

He had watched in awe as the first airship went down in flames, the entire outer hull torn off, her body a small shape as she launched to the next. The awe turned to horror when it became obvious the second ship was turning around not because it had been damaged, but because she had been captured. And all he could remember then, just as he did now, was her face as she looked at him for such a brief second, eyes resolute, jaw set. No fear.

The days after these dreams, where he is plagued by that face, by watching her jump away from him over and over, he seeks her out. At the station, on the street, in front of city hall – just to see that quirked eyebrow as she comments on how tired he looks, or so she can tell him what Korra has done yet again to make her life difficult. To reassure himself she is well, and the memories of his dreams are in the past.

It is worse when he recalls finding her after reuniting with his family in one of Amon’s prison cells, when that infiltrates his dreams instead. Slumped against a wall, unaware he was even there as he helped her to her feet. Her metal chestplate, still firmly attached to her body through the hinges at the shoulders, felt cold and dead under his hands, and he realized then without a doubt that she had already faced their enemy. She never really noticed him, not gaining full consciousness until later on the island, and she did not ask how she had gotten there.

The days after those dreams, he can not bear to look at her, to remember that he was once the cause of her greatest pain.


End file.
